41 Comments

It's not side by side. As mentioned repeatedly and several times in the review, the PCIe x16 in black is used when one GPU is installed, and the orange slots are used when more than one PCIe device is in use. With two GPUs, you use the first and third orange slots at x16.

If any of the orange are populated the black x16 is disabled. You can still use the top x16 for a single GPU and put other devices in the other PCIe slots. If you have 3 PCIe x1 devices, this board is probably not aimed at your usage scenario - it's aimed at 3x and 4x GPU usage or multi-card with additional x8 RAID cards. There are plenty of other boards that have your usage scenario covered :)

Problem is, if you are a gamer looking to use 3x GPU and wish to add an audio card, ethernet card and PCIe storage card...out of luck. No such product exists. There are a few boards with enough slots but most cases will rob PCIe 3.0 lanes from one or two of the GPUsReply

That is because the standard ivy bridge CPU and chip set only have so many lanes. If you want more you'll need to move up to ivy bridge-e.

Besides, no one really needs 3 GPUs, they just don't make games that need that amount of GPU processing power. The market is just too small. Heck, most games are console ports that will run at max settings on a GTX 460.Reply

You sir have obviously not played Crysis 3 lately! Im waiting for the Nvidia 800 series or AMD 8000 series to max this game out, My two 7970s a i7 3930k@4ghz and 16gb of ram does not even play this game on high setting well let alone the Ultra high settingReply

I so much agree here. Mainboard manufacturers just don't think in terms of an enthusiast that truly wants excellence on all fronts. This isn't helped by Intel, which has decided on-die graphics capabilities are more important than adding more PCI lanes, apparently. That's all good for those not interested in a separate graphics solution, but it's worthless to me.

Really, I want 3 fully functional PCIe 3 slots (x16 on all of them, loaded up) and a fourth for a RAID controller, that doesn't gimp my graphics solution, and a PCIe 1 slot for a sound card. I really don't think that's too much to ask for in today's computing enthusiast world.

I've been thinking I'll replace my x58 rig with a Haswell one, but I haven't heard anything about PCI lanes - and where's Thunderbolt support? Thunderbolt could feasibly go a long way to help people like me, I think.Reply

It have the exact same PWM chip in the VRM as the UP7 (8 phase IR3563), only that UP7 runs it through a quadrupler for 32 VRM phase while UP5 don't use any so it runs only 8 IR3550 but 8*60= 480A is already overkill for Ivy Bridge.

The only other thing UP5-TH misses other than VRM phase overkill is the PLX chip, so it can't run 4 way SLI/CLX, and can only run 3 way at 8X/4X/4X. But for people running 2 cards or less it is more than enough.

UP7 is a halo product/ultra flagship just like the GTX Titan, UP-5TH is the mainstream Flagship. Reply

Yup, we reviewed the UP4 TH: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6296/Though that goes along their Thunderbolt line. The Thunderbolt controller isn't cheap. But as mentioned the comparison is the G1.Sniper 3 with the PLX, or the Z77X-UD5H without the PLX (or Thunderbolt).

For a user putting down $400 for a motherboard, especially one aimed at overclocking and high performance, why not go the LGA 2011 route and X79? In this price range, LGA-1155 and Z77 just don't seem to be premium products in comparison.Reply

Why in the world is Gigabyte focusing on the LG1366 market? With all new cpus being LG1155 or 2011, seems counterproductive to produce a unit for an older motherboard kind. Even with my I7 960 I don' tknow why anyone would want to upgrade to this product. With triple -SLI (570s) a fourth slot is useless since the cards are only 3 way capable, but definitely worth experiementing on for 480's/580s/680s.

The price is what it is, very hefty...and only serious overclockers would want to purchase this.

If Nvidia made the 570 quad sli than I would consider getting this, but there's no chance of me replacing three cards to go into a higher configuration anytime soon.

This board would have done very well a few years ago...Just not convinced LG1366 was a good idea. Reply

If you would direct your attention to: (a) the GPU results page where I showcase PLX vs. no PLX performance on a single GPU and (b) my initial discussion on the PLX chip (http://www.anandtech.com/show/6170) where we discuss what the advantages and disadvantages to how the PLX chip actually works.

Yes overall the lanes are limited to 16 upstream and downstream to the GPU, but when dealing with multi-GPU configurations, most data transfer between GPUs (important for gaming and compute) via the PLX, not via the CPU, making the increased lane count between the GPUs more important than the upstream/downstream via the CPU.

Without the PLX, manufacturers are limited to x8/x4/x4 GPU setups with Ivy Bridge CPUs, where compute platforms, some gaming setups, or even a mix with RAID cards and sound cards need the lane allocation to work the way the user wants.

The "orange" in addition to making this mobo look like a Halloween joke... increase sales to the technically challenged. When you hear people talk about how they like the color of the hardware box, RAM, PSU, mobo, etc. it's because they have missed the plot all together.Reply

Don't be concerned about the $400 entry fee to the Pumpkin fanbois club, as there are quite a few kids able to spend Mommy's money on impractical toys. Asus has proved that there are many PC enthusiast suckers born every minute so Gigabyte might as well cash in on the technically dumbness, too.Reply

With the amount of technically challenged I see here at Anand that proclaim otherwise I don't believe it has anything to do with hype for pretty colors or expensive items.

Most people don't have a clue, a few have a bit, and those that do keep learning, it doesn't relate to pocketbook depth or how money is "foolishly spent", or how jealous the poorboy crybabies are when others buy the best of the best, as your personal life experience should tell you.

Without extravagant waste widespread the world would still be a 3rd world dirtbag hole, everywhere. Pretty sick of the new crybaby constant whines - if the group of whackos isn't squealing penny pinch bang for the buck, they're whining about top end items. I think we need a new "computer blog law" or two in order to outline the pervasive complaint themes that have become popular.Reply

And now we seem to be able to survey the field. So, looking down from this height, what would you recommend for someone who wants to get the highest overclock from a 3770k, using the lowest Voltage (thus producing the lowest temps) and doesn't do any gaming?

Sniper boards seem unnecessarily fancy, with too much emphasis on GPU's. The ASRock Z77 Extreme6 or Extreme4 seem OK, but maybe not great. Somewhere between those ends is a sweet middle spot for a simple overclocker.

The ASROCK Extreme4 would work perfectly for your needs! I have done several builds using the Extreme 4 and I 3770Ks. They are simply the best bang for the buck motherboard. You get all the features you need, at an awesome price. I am currently running an i7 3770K with the IHS removed (aka de-lidded) @ 4.8Ghz @ 1.272V..I have run a 48hr Prime95 stress test, and with watercooling and CL Liquid Ultra TIM, max core temps are 45,43,53,and 44C. The CL ultra is amazing, it doubled my thermal gains from de-lidding. I was using IC Diamond, and max temps were 74,73,85,and 75C.Reply

I would never suggest aiming for the highest overclock from a CPU to run in a 24/7 machine. Find the best, then dial it back a few notches so you hit a sweet spot in terms of performance/power usage/temperatures.

Ivy Bridge CPUs can vary so much, where one CPU off the shelf could take 0.1 volts less than another to hit the same clocks. For a 24/7 system, I would rather go with a motherboard that makes it easy to overclock to a nice speed rather than one that necessarily does the best. And what is the best motherboard? It's hard to tell - every CPU curve is different - is the best board one that could take a mediocre processor to new heights, or one that has the ultimate capacity to take the most expensive and best CPUs to the top in terms of performance?

Then it all comes down to price. The ASRock Z77 OC Formula, ASUS P8Z77-V Pro and GIgabyte Z77X-UD5H are all around the $210 (+/- $30) mark that will happily take a good Ivy Bridge processor to 4.8 GHz. I still have the ASUS Maximus V Formula and Gene to review shortly, as well as the G1.Sniper M3.Reply

If you're repeating the gaming benchmarks then let's stress the PLX chip next time - 4xCF won't do that:- Use Nvidia cards because they use a ton more pci-e bw than the amd cards- Preferably 3/4xTitans or 4x 680s as they have the most potential to be pci-e limited- Run at super high resolutions. E.g. 3x1080p minimum, preferably 3x1440p.

This is where vega saw pcie bw issues really show up. A good comparison would be versus the R4E and the Asrock X11. I.E. native 8x8x8x8x vs PLX 8x8x8x8x vs 2xPLX 16x16x16x16x However as both those boards are x79 though I would suggest just maxing out the cpu clock rather than equalizing it as this is more fair and representative of what the high end users would do.Reply

There is one thing I loved about the previous iteration of this board being the X58A-OC - the minimalist I/O panel. Although it didn't go far enough in my opinion, it was a delight to behold.

The whole bit about the enthusiast community is customization - the ability to change out whatever setups they want in regards to video, ram, cooling, you name it. But yet the manufacturers still continue to force choices in sub-par audio codecs and NIC choices.

The ideal enthusiast board should be devoid of of any excess I/O outside of USB ports. I should be able to put in my audiophile-grade sound card, enterprise-class NIC, what have you without the extras being thrown in. That is true choice.Reply

I am really getting annoyed at the insufficient documentation on PCI-E slot configurations being enabled/disabled. It makes testing a lot more difficult. Just tried orange slots 1 and 2, thinking they'd work. Nope. Tried a single card in slot 2 orange. Nope. It is likely disabled on default. There is no mention of this in the very short multi language manual Gigabyte provides. I've tried the Asus Maximus V Extreme a few weeks ago, and while I didn't know about it-- at least the thing provided a configuration card and table documented in the depths of its manual. No such documentation is provided by Gigabyte.